Sunday, July 30, 2006

Since Google gave me an invite to their new Picasa Web Albums service (aka Flickr killer), I decided to suck up their storage space and post a lot of the photos that I've taken so far this year. So far, I've posted photos from:

Wednesday, July 26, 2006

So you've decided to head up to Downieville this weekend for the annual Downieville Classic. As this is one of the largest races here in the foothills, we here at NorCal MTB Racing have rounded up some resources to get you prepared:

Schedule: Downieville runs over four days, but all the racing is Saturday and Sunday. Here's the abbreviated agenda:

Thursday

Trail Pre-ride Shuttles (9 AM, 12 noon, 3 PM): Shuttle service to Packer Saddle for those riders wanting a sample of Downieville’s finest singletrack descents. Both the cross country and downhill race courses will be flagged for pre-rides. Cost is $15.00 per shuttle.

Cross country (XC) point to point: Starting from Sierra City, you will have a massive climb then descend for miles back into Downieville. Here is the course description and a map. You can also check out Mark Weir's XC 2005 ride over at Motionbased.On this map, you can see last year's DH route in yellow and the XC route in red (click to enlarge):

Thursday, July 20, 2006

This weekend (Saturday actually) is the San Francisco stop for New Belgium Beer's Tour de Fat. Held on Saturday, July 22nd in Golden Gate Park (Speedway Meadow) starting at 11am. The Tour de Fat is New Belgium's touring cycling circus of riding, music and folly that raises money for local charities (San Franciscisco Bicycle Coalition and Bay Area Ridge Trail Council).

First, the good. They are noticably lighter than my older Shimano 540s. They engage better, release better and don't need any adjustments. They've worn well. I haven't even got a chance to see how much better they shed mud. Quite simply, they were a drop in upgrade that took weight of my ride and work better.

The bad. I broke the stainless steel spring in the left pedal about two weeks after installing them. Okay, not broke, but "bent real bad." While I am hazy about exactly how I did this, I am pretty sure that I "curb checked" a large rock at about 25 MPH on the Dyke 8 trail. This isn't really a mark against the Candies, as I have beaten my SPDs up even worse (there is probably an element of user error also).While accidents like this certainly happen, the real test is how the company supports you. And Crank Brothers came through like champs. After feeding them a completely ridiculous story, they asked me to ship them the pedals. In one week, UPS delivered my pedals with a new spring installed. All companies should be this easy to deal with.

Wednesday, July 19, 2006

We apologize for the shortcoming on our last race, the Magic Mushroom DH and for cancelling the current 7/22/06 Dreamcatcher DH.

The TRP core group has dwindled to two individuals and it has become virtually impossible to plan, prepare for and host races.

We do not know at this time for sure whether or not we will even be able to host the August Annual Race as we do not have the support of the Tribal Sovereign Days Planning Committee and don't know when we will be able to recruit the help necessary to once again host races in a professional manner.

We will make an official decision and announcement on the August race soon.

Okay, so I am really late on this, but here is a cross country race down in Shaver Lake, CA near Fresno. It is being organized by Team Spatdog and the course is described as "8 mile circuit course, starts and ends at Markwood Meadows. Fast descents, steep single track, granite climbs, 900ft Elevation gain per lap, creek crossing, steep granite hike." It looks like one or two laps depending on your category.

Overall, I had a great time this weekend. I know a lot of people will bitch about NORBA and the organization of the event (costs, course, poor attendance, few vendors, etc.) but I still will be extremely sad to see the US MTB Nationals move east next year.

Sunday, July 16, 2006

After days of waiting, it finally was my turn to get out and race on Saturday. After doing the pre-race ride of the course on Thursday, I decided to lighten up my wheel/tire set and put on the Kenda Karmas and junk the camelbak. I was concerned about using the new tread pattern, but the weight savings on this fast course was just too much to pass up.

As they lined up my group, it was strange how few people showed up. Two of my group was from last year's Cougar Mountain Classic (I remember racing against them), but the rest had come in from around the country. We numbered about 13 riders in my age/category bracket.After watching the other classes start ahead of us, we finally got started. One guy jumped to the lead and was gone (I later found he had won Sea Otter in the same class). As expected, I felt pretty fast and good through the first lap. A little skid in the first turn and some passing problems on the chattery singletrack, but overall a pretty fast lap time for me. I was thinking to myself I was in about 5th place at the turn. The second lap didn't go anywhere near as smooth. Right off the bat in the second technical descent, I got a terrible case of chain suck. I had to dismount to clear it and by the time I got back on the bike, I saw two people in my age group whiz by. Cursing, I pedaled after them and was making good time. However, by the time I had hit the second feedzone (and steep hill) people were really starting to pass me. Morale was pretty low here -- I think I had slipped to 7th place by now -- but I trudged onward. Making up some more time after the hill climb, I cramped up terribly on some singletrack (Another dismount, another minute lost.) However, once I got back on the pavement for the last 2 miles, I felt like I caught a second wind as others were bonking. I must have passed four riders on the last two major climbs and then was flying down the technincal descent to the race track. Just as we came back into the stadium area, a guy two bikes ahead of me lost his chain and blocked the rider behind him. Seeing this, I put the hammer down, flew by them and sprinted out of the saddle the last mile. I almost puked when I hit the finish line.

After the race, we ended up waiting forever for the results. When they were finally posted, I scored a podium visit by finishing in 4th place. And I took 3.5 minutes off my time from last year. Sweet.Being on the podium was super cool since I had struggled most of this year (as chronicled on this site). However, I must give credit where credit is due: The Kenda Karma tires were a huge, huge help.

The SuperD race was run yesterday just before my race. Didn't get a chance to view them (busy preparing for my race), but it sounded like an interesting event. Partially run on the XC course, they used a mass Le Mans style start instead of time trials format.

Although I missed the Pro mountain cross (MTX) finals (due to a scheduling problem), I did get to see the men's medal awards. Here's Eric Carter getting the stars and stripe jersey over Brian Lopes. Eric won the championship by getting the hole shot and then holding off Brian.

Jill Kitner benefited from Tara Llanes fall in the third turn to defend her National MTX title. Kitner was actually third in the race before Tara tangled with Melissa Buhl.

Friday, July 14, 2006

It looks like they finished the MTX course overnight. Hard to tell the overall course, but it appears to be less steep than last year's course. The bottom certainly has far fewer rhythm sections. The men's pro mountain cross qualifying results:

The Men's Pro cross country (XC) led off today with a suprise. After taking the lead in the second lap, Ryan Trebon (Kona) opening up a one minute plus gap on a chase group of four riders (Barry Wicks, Jeremiah Bishop, Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski and Adam Craig). While the chase group tried to close the gap with a valiant try on the fourth lap, Ryan held them off for a convincing win.Barry Wicks jumped out of the chase group to make it a 1 - 2 sweep for Kona.The final standings were:

Thursday, July 13, 2006

Finally got off work today, loaded up the Element and hauled my ass down to the US MTB Nationals / Cougar Mountain Classic. I was greeted with an eerie déjà vu from my last trip there (2005 Cougar Mountain Classic): semi humid (at least to me), hot weather with a withering sun. Why is there never any shade in Sonoma ?Whatever the reason, I pulled into Infineon Raceway and paid my $10 for parking (although I get free access as a competitor, I still have to pay on the first day ? WTF?). As I was getting my gear out of the car to saunter over to registration, I heard the announcers broadcast another finisher for the Marathon race. Wow, that did not sound like fun (they started at 7 AM). I still haven't seen a results posted for this race. (UPDATE: Travis Brown and Melissa Thomas won the Men's and Women's Marathon. MTBR has the official press release.).

Registration was fairly uneventful: they checked my qualification and USA Cycling membership, sent me over to onsite registration and I paid my money. That isn't to say that everyone was happy. A bunch of people were pissed about having to pay almost an entire year's license for just this one race. I guess to compete in any of the championship races, you can't buy a one day license. As I got out of registration, the last marathoner finished at about 2 pm.With my reigstration done and racing plate in hand, I mounted up the bike and took off for a practice run on the XC course. The cross country course is as advertised and largely the same as last year. Long hill climbs, no shade whatsever (the "tree grove" is borderline pathetic), hard as hell and incredibly bumpy. There must be 3 miles of "chatter" in this course: rutted hard pack with 5 inch bumps that just rattle your back on the off-camber singletrack. I had entertained thoughts of riding my hardtail, but half a lap into my practice my lower back completely vetoed that idea. For Saturday's race, I am rolling full suspension, light XC wheels, lots of sunblock and a full camelbak.

While everyone is (and will be for a long time judging by some comments I heard on my practice lap) bitching about this course, I've seen worse. I'm going to go out, have a good time and see how it works out.After I finished my XC practice laps, I took a quick tour of the expo/pit areas. While most of the manufacturers and pro teams had set up their pits, most of the other vendors had yet to arrive. The exception there was Kenda Tires, who had some good deals. I picked up two Kenda Kharma DTC tires for USD$24/piece and might use them come Saturday.

Shopping and hydration done, I wandered up the hill to see the gravity arenas. While the downhill was exactly as last year, it looks like they started from scratch for the mountaincross track. In fact, judging by the lack of rhythm track and the presence of backhoes, it looks like they aren't quite done yet. At least the starting gatehouse was up and ready.The Downhill looks the same as last year. People were already pinning it in the easy places and washing out on the first turn. Overall, I think most people are pretty pleased with the downhill course considering what they had to work with.I also dropped by the new short track course (but forgot to take a picture of it). They dropped it right by the Shimano tech booth and it should be really fun to watch. About 1/2 mile of heavily taped off turns where people will be able to stand right next to the riders.

That's all for tonight. Tomorrow, I'll have some live blogging from the racetrack during the day and some video (if I can swing it) at night.

Okay, today we are definitely racing. Long, long racing. The only official race on the schedule today is the Marathon, 9 laps of the XC course (about 63 miles). Here's the rest of the schedule for Today's US MTB Championship:

Just dug some video out from last year's Cougar Mountain Classic and posted it to YouTube. It gives a brief glimpse at last year's XC start/finish and the downhill course. I believe that these course are largely unchanged for this year's Cougar Mountain Classic / US MTB Championship.

Look for new videos live from the US MTB Championships starting tomorrow afternoon.

It looks like the event organizers are going to be pretty good about XC practice this year; You'll have practice time on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.Also of note today is the news that the event organizers will have a nice lounge to watch the Tour de France:

Infineon Raceway officials have taken things one step further with the Tour de France Lounge, which will be located in the main paddock and open to the public (free). It will showcase the Tour de France on six television sets daily beginning at 6:30 a.m., and the lounge will also feature couches, chairs, spin-bikes for cyclists, a massage area and cycling art work. Meridian Sports Clubs of California is providing many of the elements featured in the Tour de France Lounge.

A café experience will also highlight the lounge, complete with coffee, lattes, espresso, smoothies, energy drinks, muffins, pastries, fresh fruit and power bars. It’s a great way for race fans and competitors to keep tabs on the Tour de France while competing in this weekend’s Infineon Cougar Mountain Classic.

The coffee better be good. There isn't a Peet's within mile of the raceway.

“The things that they proposed in the new contract were not really in my best interest. For me it was better to sell my interest in both companies now than to agree to basically stay there as an employee. I owned and developed and ran the place for 15 years, and it was time for me to explore other opportunities,” Cocalis said.

So this isn't really NorCal racing specific, but I know a lot of people ride Racer Xs out there.

NORBA #4 at Deer Valley, Utah is in the books. On Saturday for the XC event, Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski ran away from the field to win the Men's competition, while Shonny Vanlandingham held off the rest of fhe field to win the Ladies. Unfortunately, the mountain cross (MTX) appears to have been a complete fubar. While most of the top Pros were at the JEEP King of the Mountain, the racers in Utah were racing on a BMX track. Yes, a BMX track. Velonews has the gory details, but needless to say, ex-BMX star Jared Graves took home the mens win here. Sunday brought the short track and downhill finals. Greg Kabush wins another men's short track title, while Katarina Nash took home the womens.In the DH, British youngster Tracy Hannah won the women's event and Greg Minnar won another men's title.

This year's 12 Hours of Humboldt will be held in the Arcata Community Forest in Arcata, CA [ MAP, Directions ]. It is the second endurance race of the Team Bigfoot Solo Cup (along with completed 12 Hours of Weaverville as well as the upcoming 12 Hours of Williamette Pass and Whiskeytown 9 to 5). Open to anyone from solo up to 4 person teams, the riders will compete on a 8-mile course that has 1600' of climbing per lap [ COURSE MAP ]. Since the Community Forest is right next to Humboldt State, your right in town near stores and bike shops. From the organizers: "Expect some new stuff on the 12 Hours of Humboldt course, the local mountain bike community has been working with the city and we're gonna dig some new trails this year. We'll try to work as much of that into the race."

Tuesday, July 04, 2006

Scroll down past the XC for the DH results. Congrats to Rick Goldrup, who unofficially won the DH with a 3:12 best two of three runs time, and Tim Olson, who won the Pro XC event. I think that this is Tim Olson finishing in the picture on the right. No word on the Super D results yet.

Sunday, July 02, 2006

Got up in the early morning fog of Eureka to grab a cup of coffee and make my way up the mountain for the Bigfoot Classic XC race. The conditions at the top of the mountain near the race site were perfect and it looked like a huge amount of people turned out. Someone later told me that we had 165 racers (about twice past years). Whatever the final count, we had a large field and a crowded pit: lots of pro riders, sports and a few beginners.

The course was one of the better ones that I have ridden: some long climbs, swooping downhills, technical singletrack and even a few hike-a-bikes. It measured out to 14 miles and about 2700 feet of climbing per lap. The pros did two laps, sport one and a half and beginners one. I didn't remember to turn on my GPS unit at the start, but here is most of the course:

Here's the elevation profile:My race turned out pretty well. I climbed well during the first set of climbs, got a little bogged down during the hike-a-bikes then made up the time during the flat at the mid-point of the race. Unfortunately, no race of mine would be complete without an epic crash. And I certainly didn't disappoint. Just after the 1/2 way point on the divided singletrack, I pulled endo'd in some mud at about 25 miles per hour (it looks pretty cool on the GPS readout). At first, I thought I had broken a rib as the bike had pummelled me in the chest during my crash, but after I pulled my bike out of the nearby tree (!) I was back racing. I pulled it together to finish with a respectable time and won my category.

I didn't get a chance to stick around for the awards ceremony, but the unofficial pro results were: